Tastebud iPhone App: Cook What's Already in the Fridge

Tastebud is a new iPhone app that allows you to build a virtual pantry of items on your phone, and will then compare them to its own database of recipes to see what you have the ingredients to prepare.

There are a number of Web apps designed to help you come up with something tasty to prepare for dinner based on the items already in your pantry or in your kitchen, but using them requires having a computer and an Internet connection. What if you're at a friends' place and you want to impress them by cooking something, but you draw a blank on what to make?

Enter Tastebud for the iPhone, a new app that allows you to build a virtual pantry of items on your phone, and will then compare them to its own database of recipes to see what you have the ingredients to prepare. Once the app has a few suggestions, it will pass them along to you to choose what you're in the mood to make.

The first thing to know about Tastebud is that the app is far from free. Being able to use your iPhone or iPod Touch to mix and match ingredients into tasty dishes will cost you $4.99 at the iTunes App Store. Once you have the app installed, you can begin to build your virtual basket of food. You can select from categories and types of food, and drag and drop specific items from those groups to your basket to build the list that Tastebud will use to come up with recipes.

Once you have a good list of ingredients, Tastebud searches for recipes that use those items. It will try to fill in the gaps if you don't have a lot of ingredients with things that are common in most households, like salt, butter, sugar, and flour, and it'll present options to you that may include more ingredients than what you put in your basket. Even so, it will try to find recipes that at least make use of the ingredients you have available.

When Tastebud finishes searching and comes up with recipes for you, you can scroll through the list in a cover-flow style view, browse them by major ingredient or type of food, or just scroll through them one by one. If you find one you really like, you can add it to your favorites list for future reference, or you can e-mail it to yourself or a friend.

If you have your own recipes that you'd like included in the Tastebud database, you can submit it to the site. Since the app searches the database online, you don't have to wait for the app to be updated for your recipe to make it in.

Tastebud could be worth its price if you find yourself throwing out old leftovers or small portions because you don't know what to do with them; the $4.99 for the app could be worth the cost of the spoiled food you're throwing away. That's how the developers of Tastebud want to frame it anyway, but whether it's a cool gimmick you only use once in a while or an app that you'll use regularly depends entirely on the way you shop and cook.